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Duke   University   Libraries 

President's  mes 
Conf  Pam  #297 

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HOUSE  OF  REPRESENTATIVES,  M  .y   ;M,   t^6 4. —Referred 
to  the  CoJiiraittee  on  Military  Affairs  and  oniercil  to  be  printed. 

[By  the  Chair.] 


rRESlDENT'S  MESSAGE. 


To  the  SenGie  and  House  of  Representatives 

Of  the  Confederate  States  of  America  : 

A  bill  '*  to  provide  and  organize  a  general  staff  fo*r  armies  in  the 
field,  to  serve  during  the  war,"  was  passed  by  your  predecessors  and 
submitted  for  my  approval  at  the  close  of  the  last  session.  I  was 
unable  to  approve  it,  and  now  desire  to  state  ray  objections  to  it,  as 
well  as  my  views  on  this  important  subject,  in  the  hope  that,  by  a 
comparison  of  opinion,  some  measure  may  be  framed  equally  accepta- 
ble to  the  Legislative  and  Executive  Departments  of  the  Government. 

I  believe  it  to  be  established  by  the  experience  of  Europe,  as  well 
as  our  own,  that  it  is  impracticable  to  organize  and  administer  armies 
with  efficiency  without  the  aid  of  a  general  staff  permanent  in  its 
character,  trained  in  its  duties,  aspiring  to  promotion   in  its  own 
corps,  and  responsible  to  the  head  of  the  department.     Such  a  staff 
should  be  composed  of  a  small  body  of  officers  whose  education,  ex- 
perience, activity  and  special  adaptation  to  their  duties  render  them 
peculiafily  competent  to  perform  functions  on  which  an  army  depends 
for  its  capacity  to  act  with  vigor.     In  Europe,  years  of  varied  edu-* 
cation  in  the  schools,  the  cantonment  and  the  field,  fit  the  staff  officer 
for  his  position,  and  a  long  experience  in  the  lower  grades  is  required 
before  he  is  deemed  competent  to  duty  in  a  more  important  sphere. 
We  are  forced  to  make  experimental  appointments  of  officers  unpre- 
pared by  any  previous  training,  and  who  can  only  acquire  in  actual 
service  that  experience  which  must  serve  in  place  of  .well-grounded 
instruction.     It  is  scarcely  possible  to  make  this  experience  supply 
the  defect  of  previous  military  education  otherwise  than  by  the  organ- 
ization of  the  officers  into  one  corps,  responsible  to  one  head,  who 


can  assign  them  to  positions  independent  of  the  movements  of  gen- 
eral officers,  and  who,  by  judiciously  varying  the  field  or  character  of 
their  duties,  can  give  them  larger  opportunities  for  instruction  and 
prevent  their  views  being  narrowed  to  the  routine  and  usages  of  a 
single  commander,  himself,  perhaps,  without  military  education. 

Hope  of  promotion  founded  on  their  own  merit  and  length  of  good 
service  is  as  necessary  to  the  officers  of  the  general  staff  as  to  those 
of  the  line,  furnishing  the  best  stimulus  known  to  honorable  exertion 
and  zealous  discharge  of  duty.  This-  stimulus  cannot  exist  unless 
the  staff  be  organized  into  one  corps,  responsible  to  one  chief,  who, 
thus  becoming  intimately  acquainted  with  the  capacity  and  merits  of 
each,  is  able  properly  to  distribute  the  duties  so  as  to  secure  the  ser- 
vices of  the  right  man  in  the  right  place,  and  afford  to  each  an 
opportunity  for  distinction.  If  otherwise,  each  staff  officer  becomes 
dependent  upon  the  particular  commander  with  whom  he  is  serving. 
No  means  of  comparison  exist  between  the  relative  merits  of  the  offi- 
.cers.  Each  looks  for  promotion  to  the  favor  of  his  general,  and 
rises  in  grade,  not  by  his  own  relative  merit,  but  by  the  patronage  of 
his  commander,  A  gallant  and  able  commander^  whose,  own  promo- 
tion is  exceptionally  rapid  by  reason  of  his  special  merits,  is  thus 
enabled  to  lift  to  higher  grades  the  officers  of  his  staff  to  whom  he 
has  become  attached  by  companionship  in  the  field,  although  these  • 
officers  may  be  far  inferior  in  merit  and  length  of  service  to  others 
■whose  duties  have  connected  them  with  generals  less  distinguished. 
Promotion  thus  becomes  with  the  staff  a  matter  of  hazard,  dependent 
on  the  merit,  not  of  the  officer  himself,  but  of  the  general  with  whom 
he  serves,  and  heart-burnings,  jealousy  and  discontent  are  the  natural 
results  of  so  false  a  system. 

Again  :  If  the  general  staff  is  not  formed  into  corps,  there  will  not 
be  the  "esprit"  necessary  in  all  military  organizations,  and  there 
cannot  be  tlie  co-intelligence  among  the  officers  thereof  which  secures 
the  certain  and  rapid  communication  of  all  information  through  the 
different  parts  of  an  army.  There  will  also  be  embarrassment  in  their 
tenure  of  office  and  assignment  to  duty.  As  when  a  general  officer 
dies,  or  is  relieved  from  his  command,  there  remain  no  duties  to  be 
performed  by  the  staff  which  had  been  authorized  for  him  especially. 
However,  valuable  or  meritorious  the  officers  may  be,  they  are  dis- 
placed by  the  staff  chosen  by  the  successor  of  their  commander. 
Nothing  remains  but  to  deprive  them  of  their  commissions  without 
fault  of  their  own,  or  to  keep  tliera  in  service  as  supernumeraries,  and 
thus  to  add  to  the  number  of  officers  already  in  excess  of  the  wants 
of  the  army. 

Again :  An  organization  of  a  general  staff  should  possess  flexibil- 
ity, so  that  the  proper  number  and  class  of  staff  officers  can  be  sent 
where  needed.  If  an  inflexible  rule  of  assignment  be  fixed  by  legis- 
lation, some  commands  will  be  cumbered  with  unnecessary  officers, 
while  others  will  be  deficient  in  the  number  indispensable  to  perform  the 
necessary  duties.  Legislation  would  surely  be  considered  unwise,  if 
it  allotted  by  inflexible  rule  the  number  of  troops  to  be  used  in  each 
military  department,  yet  it  would  be  scarcely  more  objectionable  than 


the  assignment  of  the  same  specified  number  of  staff  oflScers  to  each 
commander  according  to  his  grade,  thus  applying  a  general  rule  to  a 
series  of  cases,  each  requiring  special  treatment. 

The  inspecting  duties  in  an  army  ought  not,  in  my  judgment,  to 
be  separated  from  those  of  the  adjutants.  The  erroneous  impression 
prevails  that  an  inspecting  department,  independent  of  the  general 
staft".  is  established  in  most  of  the  armies  of  Europe.  The  reverse  is 
the  fact,  and  the  duties  of  inspection  are  so  intimately  connected  with 
the  other  duties  of  the  general  staff  that  they  can  be  properly  per- 
forn:ed  by  it  alone.  The  objections  to  the  separation  are  manifold. 
In  the  first  place,  officers  having  no  other  than  inspecting  duties  must 
frequently  be  unemployed  even  in  war,  while  in  peace  their  duties 
will  occupy  but  very  little  time.  Next,  it  is  to  be  observed,  that  where 
the  adjutants  and  inspectors  form  one  corps,  the  duties  of  the  adjutant 
make  him  familiar  with  the  details  of  tlie  service  where  reform  and 
discipline  are  most  needed,  and  thus  render  him  more  competent  to 
effective  inspection  when  assigned  to  that  duty,  than  he  could  be,  if 
exclusively  employed  as  inspector.  Lastly,  the  duties  of  an  inspector 
arc  such  as  not  to  render  the  officer  Avho  performs  them,  acceptable  to 
his  brother  officers,  if  his  duty  be  properly  performed.  It  is  not  to 
be  wondered  at  fliat  an  officer  whose  duties  may  not  be  inappropriately 
described  as  those  of  a  detective,  should,  if  his  duty  be  rigidly  per- 
formed, incur  somewhat  of  the  odium  of  an  informer  ;  and  when  these 
duties  constitute  the  sole  service  of  an  officer  permanently  attached 
to  an  army,  he  must  become  either  so  lax  in  their  performance  as  to 
render  him  useless,  or  his  professional  pride  and  self-respect  are 
wounded,  ;ind  h!s  relations  with  his  brother  officers,  unfavorably  af- 
fected by  the  distrust  and  dislike  resulting  from  his  official  reports. 
When,  however,  an  assistant  mijutant  and  inspector  general  is,  from 
time  to  time,  assigned  to  the  making  of  necessary  inspections  at  various 
points,  this  temporary  discharge  of  an  unpleasant  duty  becomes  but 
an  incident  in  his  professional  career,  ami  does  not  aifect  his  relations 
with  his  brother  officers. 

Having  stated  tliese  as  the  general  principles  which,  in  my  judg- 
ment should  govern  legislation  on  the  subject,  the  objections  to  the 
bill  passed  at  the  last  session  can  be  more  easily  umierstood,  and  I 
proceed  to  state  them  briefly : 

I.  The  first  section  of  the  bill  authorizes  a  general  commanding 
armies,  or  a  separate  army,  to  assign  to  duty  one  of  the  general  offi- 
cers under  his  command,  as  chief  of  staff;  one  of  the  brigadier  gen- 
erals under  his  command  as  inspector  general ;  and  one  other  briga- 
dier as  chief  quartermaster  ;  one  officer  below  the  rank  of  brigadier 
as  chief  commissary,  and  one  as  chief  of  ordnance. 

This  power  of  assignment  is  given  without  reference  to,  or  consul- 
tation with,  the  War  Department  or  the  Executive,  and  might  be 
exercised  in  contravention  of  the  views  and  judgment  of  both.  Leav- 
ing out  of  viaw  the  question  whether  it  is  in  accordance  ^ith  the 
Constitution  to  make  the  commander  of  an  army  independent  of  the 
commander-in-chief  in  the  discharge  of  any  of  the  duties  of  his 
office,  and  ^poking  only  to  the  effect  of  such  a  system,  it  plainly  ere- 


ates,  in  this  branch  of  the  service,  as  many  independent  executives  as 
there  are  generals  commanding  armies  in  the  field,  and  thus  destroys 
that  unity  of  design  and  concert  of  action  which  are  indispensable 
elements  of  success  in  war.  The  generals  commanding  armies  would 
be,  by  this  section,  vested  with  the  right  to  derange  the  organization 
of  their  commands,  as  settled  by  the  commander-in-chief,  by  remov- 
ing from  their  appropriate  functions  the  commanders  of  corps,  divi- 
sions and  brigades,  whom  the  Executive  had  selected  and  the  Senate 
approved,  as  specially  fitted  to  lead  the  troops  in  battle. 

That  the  general  comnianding,,  the  army  has,  under  the  terms  of 
this  section,  the  right  of  assigning  general  officers  under  liis  command 
to  the  duties  of  the  general  staff",  without  reference  to  the  authority 
of  the  Executive,  is  plain  from  the  other  sections,  which  declare  that 
the  President  is  to  appoint,  Avith  the  advice  of  the  Senate,  the  staffs 
of  all  general  officers  other  than  those  wJio  command  armies. 

Nor  does  this  section  restrict  the  commanding  general  in  relation 
tion  to  the  branch  of  the  service  or  the  grade  of  the  officers  whom  he 
is  permitted  to  assign  to  commissary  and  Ordnance  duties  of  the  gen- 
eral staff.  It  is  only  necesaary  that  they  be  below  the  rank  of  brig- 
adier general.  The  commanding  general  would  have  the  power, 
therefore,  to  assign  a  captain  commissary  to  be  chief* of  ordnance,  or 
a  lieutenant  of  infantry  to  be  chief  commissary,  without  check  or 
control  from  the  President  or  Senate,  while  the  President  would  be 
without  power  to  appoint  subordinates  to  the  officers  thus  selected  by 
the  general  of  an  army,  without  submitting  their  nominations  for  the 
approval  of  the  Senate.  Not  only,  therefore,  is  all  order  of  authority 
interverted  by  these  provisions,  but  the  officers  assigned  to  duty  by 
the  commanding  generals,  not  being  permanent  members  of  the  gen- 
eral staff",  would  be  independent  of  its  chief,  and  inextricable  confu- 
sion would  necessarily  result. 

This  section,  so  far  from  responding  to  the  title  of  the  bill,  by  jJro- 
viding  a  general  staff',  in  reality  breaks  up  that  which  now  exists, 
subdivides  it  into  a  number  of  small  bodies,  irresponsible  to  the  head 
of  the  department,  and  destroys  the  possibility  of  any  regular,  con- 
sistent and  intelligent  co-operation  in  the  action  of  our  forces,  so 
essential  to  success.  Its  effect  is  to  create  a  staff"  for  generals,  not  a 
general  staff". 

If  a  contest  should  arise  between  the  quartermaster  generals,  the 
commissarie  generals,  or  the  chief  of  ordnance,  of  Generals  A.  and 
B.,  in  any  district  of  country,  for  supplies  or  means  of  transporta- 
tion, who  is  to  deternjine  between  these"  rivals,  each  equal  in  authority 
and  each  dependent  on  a  separate  chief?  How  are  the  chiefs  of  those 
bureaus  in  Ridj^mond  to  apportion  the  supplies  in  store,  according  to 
the  wants  of  the  diff"erent  armies,  without  authority  to  exact  from 
them  reports  and  returns.  If  it  be  said  that  these  officers 'would  be- 
come temporarily  responsible  to  the  heads  of  departments,  how  is 
this  resjionsibility  to  be  enforced  if  the  orders  of  the  general  and 
those  of  the  chief  of  the  department  should  conflict  ?  If  ordnance 
depots  are  provided  at  different  points,  for  diff"erent  commands,  how  is 
the  oflScer  in  charge  of  these  depots  to  act,  if  ordered  by  the  chief  of 


ordnance  of  a  general  in  the  field  to  make  a  different  disposal  of  the 
stores  from  that  ordered  by  the  head  of  the  department  in  Richmond  ? 

If  such  a  bill  should  become  a  law,  in  vain  would  the  War  Depart- 
ment seek  to  exact  rigid  obedience  to  law  or  orders  from  the  irrespon- 
sible staff  created  under  its  provisions.  In  vain  would  it  seek  for  the 
information  necessary  for  its  guidance,  or  attempt  to  change  the  rel- 
ative strength  of  armies,  to  meet  the  varying  movements  of  the  ene- 
my. The  staff  officers  could  be  made  the  ready  and  safe  means  of 
thwarting  the  •Government  in  its  orders  for  the  removal  of  troops  from 
one  command  to  reinforce  threatened  positions  in  another,  and  could 
be  easily  rendered  subservient  to  the  natural  but  dr.ngerous  propen- 
sity of  most  commanders  to  retain  all  the  troops  under  their  own  con- 
trol for  the  safety  of  their  own  commands,  withoi^j;  reference  to  more 
urgent  needs  at  other  points. 

It  is  scarcely  necessary  to  add  to  these  considerations  more  than  a 
bare  {illusion  to  the  tendency  of  such  bodies  of  officers,  when  depen- 
dent for  their  own  promotion  on  the  favor  of  their  special  chiefs,  to 
resort  to  agencies  less  commendable  than  the  zealous  discharge  of 
their  legitimate  duties  for  the  attainment  of  their  desires. 

II.  Another  very  objectionable  feature  of  the  bill  proposed  is  its 
effect  on  the  officers  of  the  general  staff  other  than  those  who  may  be 
selected  as  the  favorites  of  commanding  generals. 

Numbers  of  zealous,' meritorious,  and  valuable  officers  have  made 
the  duties  of  the  general  staff  objects  of  special  study,  have  embraced 
the  staff  as  a  branch  of  the  profession  in  which,  under  existing  laws, 
they  are  entitled  to  promotion  for  merit  and  long  service,  just  as  the 
line  officers  have  a  right  to  promotion  in  their  branch. 

This  bill  deprives  the  staff  officers  of  this,  the  great  incentive  to 
the  zealous  discharge  of  duty.  It  debars  them  from  promotion  to  the 
higher  grades  of  their  own  branch  of  service,  and  bestows  these  prizes 
of  honorable  ambition  .on  the  officers  of  the  line,  who  will  thus 
monopolize  the  promotions  to  the  higher  grades,  both  in  the  line  and 
staff  to  the  entire  exclusion  of  the  officers  of  the  latter.  Few  will 
be  Avilling  to  remain  in  the  staff  under  such  circumstances.  Those 
who  consent  to  continue  will  be  those  least  ambitious  of  promotion, 
and  the  whole  staff  service  will  be  impaired  in  tone  and  efficiency. 

III.  Tlie  assignment  of  general  officers  to  staff  duties,  as  provided 
in  the  bill,  would  leave  many  brigades,  some  divisions,  and  perhaps 
some  corps  without  their  appropriate  commanders,  and  no  provision 
is  made  to  supply  the  vacancies  thus  created.  Are  their  commands 
to  be  considered  vacant  and  successors  appointed  ?  If  so,  what  is  to 
become  of  those  assigned  to  staff  duty,  should  the  commanding  gen- 
eral revoke  the  assignment  ?  If  the  contrary,  many  brigades  will  be 
commanded  by  the  officer  next  in  rav.k  to  the  assigned  brigadier, 
however  incompetent  such  officer  may  be  to  command  a  brigade,  and 
the  like  would  occur  as  to  divisions  and  corps,  in  contravention  of  the 
policy  well  considerfed  and  established  that  generid  officers  are  ap- 
pointed by  selection  for  merit  and  not  promoted  by  seniority.  If  the 
commanding  general  is  ordered  to  another  command,  is  he  to  take  his  ' 
staff  with  him  or  is  he  to  leave  it  for  service  with  his  successor  ?     In 


either  case,  is  the  whole  general  staff  of  each  army  to' be  changed  at 
the  caprice  of  the  new  commander  ?  This  must  be  the  effect  of  the 
bill,  for  the  power  to  assign  necessarily  implies  the  power  to  revoke, 
as  it  Avould  otherwise  be  equivalent  to  a  permanent  appointment  that 
could  only  be  made  by  the  President  with  the  advice  and  consent  of 
the  Senate. 

lY.  The  fourth  objection  to  the  bill  is  that  it  applies  ong  rigid  rule 
for  the  number  of  the  general  staff,  based  solely  on  the  rank  of  the 
commander,  and  hixving  no  reference  to  the  necessities  of  a  command. 
The  staff  allowed  is  excessive  in  number  and  rank,  in  niany  instances, 
and  entirely  inadequate  in  others.  A  luw  providing  a  general  staff 
on  such  a  basis  as  is  assumed  in  this  bill,  cannot,  from  its  very  nature, 
be  executed  according  to  its  terms.  The  labor  required  of  the  staff 
connected  with  a  bngade,  division  or  coips  depends  on  the  fact  of  its 
being  part  of  an  army  or  a  separate  command,  as  well  as  on  the  num- 
ber of  men,  the  extent  of  country  over  which  operations  ar-e  to  be  con- 
ducted, the  abundance  or  scarcity  of  supplies  in  the  district,  the 
existence  or  absence  of  raiload,  river  or  other  transportation,  the 
concentration  or  dispersion  of  the  troops,  and  the  many  other  circum- 
stances which  control  military  movements  in  time  of  war.  It  is  im- 
possible to  apply  a  rigid,  unbending  rule  to  such  diverse  cases. 

An  organization  into  corps  meets  all  these  difficulties  by  providing 
for  assignment  of  the  proper  number  of  officers  to  different  commands 
according  to  the  needs  of  each. 

V.  The  number  and  rank  of  the  aides-de-camp  allowed  by  the  bill 
is  believed  to  be  greatly  in  excess  of  those  allowed  by  other  govern- 
ments, and  quite  unsuited  to  the  nature  of  ours.  Tliey  would  rather 
impede  than  improve  the  service.  They  Avould  encourage  a  love  of 
ostentation  and  feed  a  fondness  for  vain  display  which  should  rather 
be  discouraged  than  fostered  The  experience  of  this  war  has  de- 
monstrated that  the  most  efficient  commanders,  those  who  have  most 
attracted  the  respect,  gratitude  and  admiration  of  their  country,  have 
avoided  the  large  retinue  of  personal  staff  which  this  bill  would  seem 
to  sanction  as  proper  or  desirable. 

VI.  The  objection  to  the  enormous  increase  in  the  number  of  offi- 
cers and  expenditure  that  would  result  from  the  passage  of  such  a 
bill,  becomes  a  matter  of  serious  concern  when  no  conesponding  in- 
crease of  efficiency  is  secuied  ;  of  still  graver  importance,  Avlien  the 
opposite  result  is  to  be  feared. 

According  to  the  bill  as  pa"ssed,  the  staff  w^ould  embrace  an  addi- 
tion of  about  four  bundled  officers,  involving  an  increased  annual  ex- 
penditure for  pay,  rations,  forage  and  allowance,  amounting  to 
^1,1 08, 728' above  the  present  staff,  as  organized  by  general  orders 
under  existing  legislation. 

If  generals  are  to  be  ailoAved  to  change  the  staff  of  each  army  to 
which  they  may  be  assigned  at  their  pleasure,  it  is  difficult  to  calcu- 
late the  extent  to  which  this  abuse  wo.uld  grow,  the  number  of  men 
that  Avould  be  withdrawn  from  useful  service  to  cumber  the  staff,  or 
the  increase  of  expenditure  involved. 

Congress  will  perceive  that  with  objections  so  radical  it  was   im- 


possible  for  me  to  apj)rovo  the  bill  passed  at  the  last  session,  and  that 
the  subject  was  too  important  to  be  treated  in  a  hurried  message  with- 
in the  last  few  hours,  of  the  close  of  a  Congress.  Concurring  in  the 
expediency  of  legislation  for  the  organization  of  a  general  staff,  1 
have  thought  a  full  exposition  of  my  views  on  the  subject  would  per- 
haps*conduce  to  tlie  framing  of  a  measure  which  would  carry  into 
effect  the  views  of  the  Legislative  Department  while  excluding  the 
provisions  which  have  compelled  me  to  decline  approving  that  devised 
by  your  p;-edecessors. 

JEFFERSON  DAVIS. 
Richmond,  May  28,  1864. 


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